In 2015 Canada’s traditional ruling party was returned to power amid considerable fanfare at home and abroad. While the ensuing excitement undoubtedly owed in part to the figure of Justin Trudeau — a kind of walking listicle-generator who may well have been engineered via algorithm deep in bowels of Buzzfeed HQ — it was also the product of a successful political strategy which saw the Liberals embrace left-leaning rhetoric around taxes, spending, the economy, and social policy.

Unlike other recent efforts from the political center (notably Hillary Clinton’s ill-fated 2016 presidential run) Trudeau made a professed desire to tax the rich and fight inequality a central theme of his campaign, and reaped the electoral rewards. When examined in detail the Liberal program was in fact fairly modest and has only grown tamer in government. Yet by embracing the language of redistribution and activist government, albeit in vague and qualified terms, Trudeau successfully convinced large numbers of Canadians that they were voting for a progressive, left-wing agenda — a narrative that came to be channeled in media coverage both during and after the election.

With the 2020 presidential election looming and the available evidence suggesting that the Democratic base is considerably to the left of the party elite, some centrist Democrats will very likely look to Trudeau’s charade as a model to be emulated. If a genuinely egalitarian agenda is to prevail, it’s worth examining the what the Liberal feint was and how it succeeded.